is there anything I can enter??

It seems to me that, in the UK, I’m excluded from so many competitions. On the Book Programme the other day there were talking about all these awards and recognition and incentives for "young writers" – so I’m over 40 and don’t qualify – is there an OLD writer scheme? Most comps and awards are "published in the UK only" so – although I can’t GET published in the UK because of their general anti-genre stance, I’m excluded from those too.

Now today I spot a "Brit Writer" competition with a glittering award ceremony and £10k prize – and you have to be unpublished or self-published!! And the awards will be attended by…yup, you’ve guessed it…a load of PUBLISHED AUTHORS!!

What is bizarre is this is the first rule:

The competition is open to all unpublished and self-published writers from across the World who are aged five years and over

If I wasn’t bi I wonder if there was anything I could go in for!! But here in the UK, it does seem very limiting.

Grumpity grump. It’s freezing cold, snowing, and I has an ‘eadache.

I asked Loveyoudivine yesterday for a review copy of a book and got a very snitty email in response. I bought the book anyway—on a 3rd party site, just to be annoying—and it’s actually half-way decent, so the rude publisher’s response won’t affect my mark (as it should be) – the shitty editing, however are going to drag it down—it looks like they don’t bother to edit at all to be honest. If I can spot as many as I have (and believe me I don’t look for grammar errors, as I am generally grammar-blind) then there must be 3 times that number that I didn’t spot. But it’s not a bad story so far – its "The Framing of Dorian Gray" by Barry Lowe. It’s Holmes fanfic, but it’s quite good (editing aside)